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02.01 (21.01) We're going to leave it there for the night. Please check our US page for the latest.

02.00 (21.00) And he's done. There were no specifics - no details of bans on extended magazines or body armour or new background checks - but the President sounded a grimly determined note that this time must be different and that he would use the freedom of his second term to stop these tragedies from continuing their brutal regularity.

01.59 (20.59) The President is reading through the names of the children now. Many adults in the audience look distraught.

01.56 (20.56) And here comes the challenge: "Can we honestly say we're doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm?" He seems to be building an argument that the nation and the government has more work to do. "I've been reflecitng on this the last few days and if we're honest with ourselves the answer is we're not doing enough and that has to change."

He says this is the fourth time in his presidency that the nation has been torn apart by mass killings.

01.55 (20.55) The President says that as a nation "we face some hard questions" and channels his own experiences as a father as he talks about how any parent would anything they could to "shield them from harm".

Our most important job is to give them what the need to become self reliant and capable and resilient - ready to face the world without fear.

But he says parents can't do it alone - the job of keeping children safe is something that "we can only do together".

01.50 (20.50 ) He tells the people of Newtown that they are not alone: "Our world has been torn apart. All across this land of ours we have wept with you."

He describes the teachers who responded with "love and courage" to shepherd their kids to safety.

01.45 (20.45) The President begins with scripture and tells the audience:

We gather here in memory of 20 beautiful children and six remarkable adults that lost their lives in a school that could have been any school

01.15 (20.15) The President is sitting with his hands clasped in front of him as he watches a small Muslim boy climb onto a box so he can reach the microphone to offer a prayer.

01.05 (20.05) Cristina Hassinger, whose mother Dawn Hochsprung died trying to stop the killer, tweets this picture of the President holding Hochsprung's granddaughter.

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01.00 (20.00) The President has Governor Malloy and his wife on one side and Chris Murphy, the Senator-elect for Connecticut, on his other.

00.55 (19.55) The President has just walked in to a round of applause. Rev Matt Crebbin, of the Newtown Congregational Church, says "we needed to be together to show that we are together and united". He says the clergy have deliberately decided to sit among the crowd rather than on stage in a gesture of solidarity. He says all the religious leaders are there for the people of Newtown, irrespective of faith.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Hena Daniels - Interfaith Clergy: "These darkest days in our community shall not be the final word heard from us." &lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Newtown" target="_blank"&gt;#Newtown&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/noframe&gt;

00.50 (19.50) There will be prayers from religious leaders of a number of Christian branches as well as Islam and Judaism.

00.30 (19.30) A big round of applause as some of the police and other first responders enter the hall.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: John Bell - Applause in the auditorium as State PD - fist responders arrive to take their seats after a private meeting with President Obama. &lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Newtown" target="_blank"&gt;#Newtown&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/noframe&gt;

00.25 (19.25) It's a very unusual scene inside the school hall where you have some individuals weeping while politicians mull around and chat with reporters and children run down the aisles.

00.15 (19.15) Here's Bill Clinton speaking after the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, an act of domestic terrorism that took more than 160 lives, including 19 children.

00.10 (19.10) The vigil is running late but it's a comforting scene inside the school hall.

The auditorium is now filling up shortly before the vigil is due to start. Adults are standing in small groups, talking to one another quietly, some are crying, some embracing, holding each other close.

Earlier, several small groups of kids were standing in groups as well, some chatting happily with their friends in contrast to the emotions shown by the adults.

Several kids were wearing "Sandy Hook School" sweat shirts, several others were in Scout uniform.

23.55 (18.55) We're expecting the President in about five minutes, although his speeches often begin later than scheduled.

23.35 (18.35) Here's Obama's statement on Friday afternoon. Expect him to be less emotional tonight as he tries to project strength on behalf of the grieving families.

He will no doubt also linger over one of the many moments of heroism - whether it was Dawn Hochsprung, the principal who lunged into the hallway after gunman, or Vicki Soto, the teacher who shielded her children with her own body.

23.20 (18.20) The set up for Obama's speech is identical to the one in Tucson: a black background adorned with just two flags, the American and the State of Connecticut.

23.10 (18.10) The pool reporter captures the scene as people fill the hall ahead of Obama's speech.

Families are filing into a large lecture style hall in a somewhat surreal atmosphere. There is a hum of conversation as people greet and hug people they know. Several hundred people are in here already. There are a large number of elementary school age children with their parents. Some of the kids are carrying cuddly toys and teddies, including several with small light brown soft dogs.

The boy who would grow up to be America's deadliest school gunman stood out sharply during his own days in the classroom.

Adam Lanza, who was 20, is believed by investigators to have attended Sandy Hook Elementary, the site of his massacre on Friday, before being removed and partially home-schooled by his mother.

The decision to take him out of class was one of many taken by his affluent parents as they struggled to find ways to support their troubled son.

Following their divorce, Lanza lived at his mother's colonial-style mansion, where he had two of the house's four bedrooms – one for himself and the other for the computer where he played violent video games.

Friends recalled an intensely shy but highly intelligent classmate, who wore oversized formal shirts with pens in their top pockets while others chose the youthful casual-wear typical of US schools.

"He was very thin, very remote and was one of the goths," Catherine Urso, the mother of one of Lanza's classmates, told reporters, referring to the "gothic" subculture centring on dark rock music.

22.35 (17.35) The President's motorcade has arrived at Newtown high school:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: The Associated Press - BREAKING: President Obama arrives in Newtown, Conn., to meet with families of school shooting victims -RJJ&lt;/noframe&gt;

22.25 (17.25) A reminder of Mr Obama's speech after the Tucson shootings. As horrible as that tragedy was, the President's task was clearer-cut then: he went to Arizona to call for civility in public discourse and an end to overheated political rhetoric. The situation in Connecticut is darker and harder to put into words.

The big question: will he make any announcements on the "meaningful action" he promised on gun control?

22.00 (17.00) During his relatively brief visit to Newtown, the President will talk with families of the victims, meet with police and other first responders, and then deliver a speech at a vigil. It's only been five months since he last went through this grim route in Aurora, Colorado. The biggest difference between the two? In Colorado, he spent much of his time at a hospital talking with the wounded. In Newtown, all the victims were killed except for a single member of staff, who was wounded.

21.30 (16.30) Bad weather in Connecticut has forced Obama to travel by road from the airport, rather than helicopter. A White House official said that the President has written the speech himself, with help from his staff.

I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.

A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. His 7 and 9 year old siblings knew the safety plan -- they ran to the car and locked the doors before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife from Michael, then methodically collected all the sharp objects in the house into a single Tupperware container that now travels with me. Through it all, he continued to scream insults at me and threaten to kill or hurt me.

That conflict ended with three burly police officers and a paramedic wrestling my son onto a gurney for an expensive ambulance ride to the local emergency room.

21.10 (16.10) The President, wearing a dark suit for a difficult day, has landed in Connecticut.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Breaking News - Air Force One has landed at Bradley Airport in Hartford, Conn.; President will speak at a vigil in Newtown later tonight - &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/nbcnightlynews" target="_blank"&gt;@nbcnightlynews&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/noframe&gt;

21.05 (16.05) Lt Col Vance says the threat at the church was taken "extremely seriously" and that a criminal investigation has been launched. He says there will be "significant security" in place for the President's visit, as you would expect.

He says "a great deal of evidence" was taken from the Lanza house but that there is still no motive they can publicly discuss. He also says investigators are not yet sure what gun Nancy Lanza was murdered with.

21.00 (16.00)Lt Col Paul Vance, of State Police, is giving a brief update and says that a shotgun was found in Lanza's car parked outside the school. He says that the Bushmaster rifle was the primary weapon for the killing spree but that the gunman killed himself with one of his two pistols. All the weapons he took into the school had extra magazines and he was equipped with "hundreds of bullets".

20.50 (15.50) The Brady Campaign, named after the Reagan press secretary who was shot during a 1981 assassination attempt on the-then president, is one of America's most prominent gun control groups. They've been consistently tough on Obama's gun control record, giving him straight F's in a report card on his first year in office (see below).

“If I had been told, in the days before Barack Obama’s inauguration, that his record on gun violence prevention would be this poor, I would not have believed it,” said Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Center, back in 2010.

Senior Democrats have promised to introduce a bill banning assault weapons as pressure mounted on Barack Obama to take concrete action to reduce the likelihood of a repeat of the Sandy Hook primary school massacre.

A bill to restrict the use and sale of weapons like the high-powered Bushmaster .223 that coroners said had killed many of the children at Sandy Hook, would be introduced in the next session of the USCongress, promised senior Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein.

"It will ban the sale, the transfer, the importation and the possession. Not retroactively but prospectively. And it will ban the same for big clips, drums or strips of more than 10 bullets," she told NBC News, adding that she expected Mr Obama to support the bill.

The move – which would essentially revive the Bill Clinton-era assault weapons that was allowed to lapse in 2004 – is expected to be highly controversial with the powerful gun lobby and politicians whose constituents cling fiercely to their Second Amendment gun rights.

20.25 (15.25) Although the bomb threat at St Rose Lima Church turned out to be a hoax, it would been terrifying for the town to once again see police drawing their weapons.

A man armed with an assault-style rifle and suspected of killing three men in a domestic dispute was shot dead by police after a car chase and shootout that left an officer wounded, marking a second incident of deadly gun violence in Alabama in two days, officials said on Sunday.

The two shootings on Saturday in Alabama came a day after 20 children and six adults were shot to death by a gunman who went on a rampage with a military-style rifle at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and then killed himself.

In Alabama, a gunman identified as Romero Roberto Moya, 33, was shot multiple times by police in the town of Oxford, east of Birmingham, as he stepped from a hijacked car that struck another vehicle on Saturday, police said.

19.50 (14.50) Police have now given the all clear following the bomb threat at the church, which was apparently phoned in. It's not clear if there's any connection between the bomb threat and the President's visit in a few hours time.

19.02 (14.02) The coroner appears to have confirmed what we already knew, that Lanza shot his mother in the head, before killing himself with a shot to the head.

In the aftermath of the Newtown shootings, many Twitter users became instant experts on gun control while others turned detective. It wasn't social media users that misidentified the killer as Ryan Lanza rather than his younger brother Adam – but once that titbit was out in the world, anyone bearing the name Ryan Lanza became fair game. Links to Facebook pages and Twitter accounts were shared by mainstream media outlets and web detectives alike.

While the Ryan Lanza related to the case desperately sent status updates to his friends denying he was involved, his picture was bouncing around the world. Meanwhile, a Twitter user with the name @Ryan_Lanza went from a handful of followers to thousands as he was deluged with abuse.

18.05 (13.05) The Newtown Bee, the area's newspaper, reports that the St Rose Church, where there was due to be a memorial service has been evacuated.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: The Newtown Bee - St Rose Church has been evacuated. Developing story.&lt;/noframe&gt;

BBC is reporting that it has been evacuated following an "unspecified threat".

17.52 (12.52) Jim Lokay, a reporter with New England's WCVB, tweets this picture of an armoured car outside the church. He says: "parishioner told us police walked in mid service and told then to evacuate".

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17.50 (12.50) St Rose of Lima Church, the Newtown Catholic church that was the scene of many of the vigils since Friday, is being evacuated. It's not clear why but police are on the scene.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Jim Lokay (WCVB) - St Rose of Lima Church is being evacuated. We were just ordered away from church and parishioners being let out. &lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=wcvb" target="_blank"&gt;#wcvb&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/noframe&gt;

17.40 (12.40) On Friday, the President he would hold his daughters a little tighter as he tried to explain what had happened in Connecticut. This morning he is attending his younger daughter's dance rehearsal before heading to Newtown to meet the grieving families.

17.30 (12.30) A teddy bear for each of the children killed on Friday has been left at an impromptu shrine for the dead in Sandy Hook, James Orr writes. Each bear has a child's name written on it.

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17.15 (12.15) Senator Richard Blumenthal, the former attorney general of Connecticut, has promised that after he finishes doing what he can to comfort the families he will return to Washington and press for new curbs on the tools that allowed this massacre to happen.

My colleagues in law enforcement say to me we have to do something about assault weapons and high capacity magazines. There's a sense of helplessness but also a sense of mission that citizens on the streets and in the churches are saying to me: we need to do something.

17.00 (12.00) He declines to give a motive for Lanza, because they have not finished their investigation. He admits that there are "pieces of the puzzle missing" as witnesses still need to be interviewed.

16.58 (11.58) He says his people are talking with everyone, but it is methodical and will take time and there are many more witnesses to speak to, including children.

16.53 (11.53) Vance says that a great deal of work still needs to be done on forensically examining the weapons. He's confident that they'll put "every single resource" into the investigation and examine every piece of evidence. "Our goal is to answer every single question."

Lt. J. Paul Vance at his press conference

16.50 (11.50) In a press conference being held right now, police spokesman Lt J Paul Vance has said the "misinformation is being posted on social media sites". He has warned that any such misinformation is a crime.

16.44 (11.44) Meanwhile two senators, Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, have called for a national commission to examine mass shootings in the US.

Sen Lieberman told 'Fox News Sunday' that a national commission could be used to scrutinise the nation's gun laws, mental health system and the role violent video games and films might play in shootings.

A federal ban on assault weapons, which took effect in 1994, expired in 2004 and efforts to revive it have failed. Obama supported restoring the law while running for president in 2008 but did not make it a priority during his first four years.

16.10 (11.10) Hollywood meanwhile has cancelled the premiere of Tom Cruise's new film 'Jack Reacher' out of respect for the victims.

The film was due to premiere in Pittsburgh at the weekend. Critics who saw advance screenings have praised the movie but noted its violence.

According to a review by The Hollywood Reporter a “disturbing” opening sequence shows “a sniper position himself in a parking garage across the water from Pittsburgh’s baseball stadium” before gunning down “what looks to be five random targets on the riverfront promenade.”

A spokesman for Paramount Pictures said: “Due to the terrible tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, and out of honour and respect for the families of the victims whose lives were senselessly taken, we are postponing the Pittsburgh premiere of Jack Reacher. Our hearts go out to all those who lost loved ones.”

16.00 (11.00) The children who survived the shooting will not have to return to the scene of the massacre when school reopens later this week. Instead they will attend classes in neighbouring Monroe, about seven miles south of Newton, according to school officials.

All seven of Newtown's public schools, which serve more than 5,100 students, as well as the district's private schools, will be closed on Monday.

Mr Straw and his Conservative predecessor, Michael Howard, pushed through changes to the Firearms Act after a gunman shot and killed 16 children and one adult at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland, before committing suicide in 1996.

The amendments effectively banned the possession of all handguns, causing controversy among gun enthusiasts.

The more you tighten the law, the more you reduce the risk,

There is no doubt at all that the Firearms Act which I brought in in 1997, it caused a lot of controversy outside, people saying quite legitimately that ‘you’re taking away our right to use pistols, we’re not criminals’, however, it’s settled down,

It’s extremely difficult to get a license for a pistol or for a rifle and I think people feel much happier about that and safer.

15.00 (10.00) Adam Lanza managed to shoot his way into Sandy Hook with rifle shots to a glass door before heading towards the classrooms of the youngest children, according to The Times(£).

Lanza stormed past the first classroom in his path. Behind the closed door, teacher Kaitlin Roig had ordered her pupils to hide in the toilets. They escaped harm.

Inside the next classroom, however, he systematically gunned down all 14 pupils and their teacher, Lauren Rousseau, 30. Detectives believe that the children were huddled together as they died. “There were 14 coats hanging there and 14 bodies. He killed them all,” an officer told the Hartford Courant.

When police got to the classroom later they heard moans from the pile of dead children and, after moving several bodies, reached an injured boy. He died on the way to hospital.

14.42 (09.42) Investigators say they believe Adam Lanza tried to buy a gun on Tuesday from a Dick's Sporting Goods store, but was unsuccessful, according to CNN. Employees at the store have been interviewed.

14.38 (09.38) Former neighbours of Dylan Hockley, the six-year-old British boy killing in the shootings, have spoken of their heartbreak.

Maria Sweet, 81, a retired nanny, lives in the house next to Keeper's Lodge, where the Hockleys resided for nearly nine years.

When I woke up this morning and saw the news on the television my heart was just broken.

I recognised Dylan's face straight away because of that lovely smile of his.

British Connecticut school massacre victim Dylan Hockley

14.30 (09.30) Ben Paley and his nine-year-old twin brother Ethan were in different parts of Sandy Hook Elementary School when the shooting began. Telegraph TV has the video of them explaining their terror.

Meanwhile they've also taken footage of a candlelit vigil held for the massacre victims. As flowers, cards and candles are laid at a memorial in Newtown, residents of nearby Southbury gather together in a show compassion for their neighbours, spelling out the word "hope" in the darkness.

14.26 (09.26) Governor Dannel Malloy of Connecticut has become the latest public figure to call for new gun control measures. Speaking on CNN's State of the Union, he said.

These are assault weapons. You don't hunt deer with these things.

14.07 (09.07) So as Barack Obama heads to Connectictut, which, by the way, is his fourth visit to the aftermath of a mass shooting in the last four years, he is facing a dilemma that he desperately needs to address, according to Howard Kurtz at The Daily Beast.

Obama set a certain bar when he said “we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.” Can he live up to those words?

After all, Obama also acted as healer-in-chief after the Gabby Giffords shooting in Tucson, Ariz., and again after the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo. The president said then that he hoped “we all reflect on how we can do something about some of the senseless violence that ends up marring this country.”

But Obama did virtually nothing. Most Democrats have long shied away from the gun-control issue as political poison. And while the death toll in Newtown is ratcheting up the pressure for the president to take what he calls “meaningful action,” it is not clear that he can—or will—mount a legislative effort against the power of the National Rifle Association.

A White House adviser said Obama’s words were not mere rhetoric. “He did speak emotionally after Tucson and Aurora, but I do think yesterday seemed different. He does mean it and will follow through,” he said.

There are days when it seems fair to ask if part of American life has gone irretrievably insane. A description of the scene inside the elementary school, from a law enforcement official who spoke to a reporter, was that it resembled "a killing field."

That is a term of warfare, even of genocide, yet it seems not at all out of place in the context of contemporary domestic news.

A woman cries as she pays tribute to the victims of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut (AFP/Getty Images)

Dr H Wayne Carver II, the medical examiner, said of the 4,000 autopsies he has performed, and of the up to 50,000 autopsies he has overseen, he said: "This is the worst I've seen."

Dr Carver said Lanza was able to reload so quickly because he had "jungletaped" his magazines - where you tape two magazines together.

13.15 (08.15) Robbie Parker has been speaking about his daughter Emilie, one of the child victims. He disclosed that he was helping her study Portuguese, adding:

Emilie Parker

"As the deep pain begins to settle into our hearts, we find comfort reflecting on the incredible person that Emilie was and how many lives she was able to touch in her short time here on Earth.

"This world is a better place because she has been in it."

13.09 (08.09) Prayers were heard for the family of Dylan Hockley, the six-year-old British victim, at St Nicholas's Church in Eastleigh, Hampshire, today. He and his parents and older brother moved from the town to Newtown two years ago.

Prof Roger Thornton from the church called for President Obama to look again at America's gun laws, adding:

"The first reaction is just horror. It is devastating for all of the families involved but particularly at this church we wanted to remember Dylan today."

Dylan Hockley (right) with his parents Ian and Nicole

13.00 (08.00) The Pope has spoken about the shootings to crowds of pilgrims gathered in St Peter's Square in Vatican City. He said:

"I assure the families of the victims, especially those who lost a child, of my closeness in prayer. May the God of consolation touch their hearts and ease their pain.

"Upon those affected by this tragedy, and upon each of you, I invoke God's abundant blessings."

12.50 (07.50) Marsha Lanza, the gunman's aunt, has said he was "very, very bright" but home schooled after his mother "battled" with education authorities, we write in our latest report.

She said her own children "know right from wrong" and insisted "you've got to give your kids roots" as she spoke out following the shootings at Sandy Hook primary school on Friday.

In her first interview, she disclosed details of his mother Nancy's "battles" with education authorities over Adam's education.

"She eventually wound up home schooling him because she battled with the school district," she said. "In what capacity I'm not 100 per cent certain.

"If it was her behaviour, if it was learning disabilities, I really don't know but he was a very, very bright boy. He was smart."

12.22 (07.22) Investigators trying to establish a motive for the killing will today visit dozens of gun stores and shooting ranges across Connecticut, AP has reported.

They are trying to establish why Adam Lanza's mother kept a cache of high-power weapons in her house and how much experience he had with guns.

A couple with their daughter grieve after paying tribute to the victims of shooting in Newtown, Connecticut (AFP/Getty Images)

12.05 (07.05) We have published a full list of victims, including tributes from relatives. One of the victims, seven-year-old Grace McDonnell, was described by Kim Torre-Tasso, a neigbour, as a "bright, blond little girl with a cherubic face - if you could describe an angel it would be her."

She said the child and her mother were "symbiotic - she was like her little best friend".

11.56 (06.56) Richard Novia, the school district's head of security until 2008, has been speaking about a meeting with school guidance counsellors, administrators and with Adam Lanza's mother, Nancy, to understand his problems and try to ensure his safety, AP reports:

"If that boy would've burned himself, he would not have known it or felt it physically. It was my job to pay close attention to that.

"He would have an episode, and she'd have to return or come to the high school and deal with it."

Names of the victims are displayed on a flag in the business area in Newtown, Connecticut (AFP/Getty Images)

11.42 (06.42) AP reports on more of the teachers' "acts of heroism":

After gunman Adam Lanza broke through the school door, gun blazing, school psychologist Mary Sherlach and principal Dawn Hochsprung ran toward him, District Superintendent Janet Robinson said. Hochsprung died while lunging at the gunman, officials said.

The 56-year-old Sherlach, who would have been tasked with helping survivors cope with the tragedy, died doing what she loved, her son-in-law, Eric Schwartz, told the South Jersey Times.

"Mary felt like she was doing God's work," he said, "working with the children."

Victoria Soto, a 27-year-old teacher, reportedly hid some students in a bathroom or closet and died trying to shield them from bullets, a cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told ABC News. Those who knew Soto said they weren't surprised.

"You have a teacher who cared more about her students than herself," said John Harkins, mayor of Stratford, Soto's hometown. "That speaks volumes to her character, and her commitment and dedication."

11.22 (06.22) The shooting has reignited the American debate on gun control, reports Peter Foster with President Obama calling for "meaningful action" to prevent similar tragedies.

Mr Obama did not provide details of how he would tackle one of America's most divisive and intractable political issues in the light of the shootings, but gun control advocates called for the Sandy Hook shootings to be a watershed moment on the issue.

Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York and a long-time prominent advocate of gun control, led the way, saying that the warm words – however heartfelt - that have always followed such tragedies were no longer sufficient.

"Calling for 'meaningful action' is not enough," he said after Mr Obama had made his at-times tearful address to the nation in the immediate wake of the shootings on Friday, "We need immediate action."

11.14 (06.14) President Obama is expected to travel to Newtown, which has a population of 27,000, tonight to meet with victims' families and speak at the vigil at 7pm local time (midnight GMT).

In 2009, Nancy and Peter Lanza had divorced after 28 years of marriage. The break up was traumatic, leaving the couple's sons devastated. Ryan Lanza was living away at university, meaning that his brother Adam, four years younger, was left at home alone with their mother at their £350,000 house.

He was not well known to neighbours, who describe him as being reclusive and troubled.

And when the news broke on Friday of the murder of 26 people at a primary school in the town, and Ryan Lanza was hastily identified as the killer, people who knew the family knew they had named the wrong brother.

"Adam Lanza has been a weird kid since we were five years old," said Tim Dalton, a neighbour and former classmate, on Twitter. "As horrible as this was, I can't say I am surprised."

10.50 (05.50) School teachers who acted swiftly to prevent more children being killed have been praised for their "incredible acts of heroism" by District Superintendent Janet Robinson. The Sunday Times highlights one teacher's actions this morning:

Kaitlin Roig, 29, a first-grade teacher, shepherded her 14 pupils, aged six and seven, into the lavatories adjoining her classroom. The space was so tight she had to help some of them climb on to a cistern.

She wheeled a bookshelf in front of the door and locked it. Roig said she had told the children she loved them because she thought these would be the last words they heard.

One of the boys tried to reassure her. "I know karate, so it's OK," he said.

10.25 (05.25) As our main story notes this morning, gunman Adam Lanza's mother, Nancy, who was among the victims, was said to have been a "big, big gun fan" and taught her son how to shoot.

"She said she would often go target shooting with her kids," Dan Holmes, owner of the landscaping firm Holmes Fine Gardens, told Reuters.

He recalled that she once showed him a 'high-end rifle' that she had purchased.

"She was very proud of it," he told the New York Daily News. "She loved her guns.”

Lanza was armed with a Sig Sauer and a Glock handguns, typically capable of firing 15 rounds and 17 rounds each. He also had a Bushmaster assault rifle, capable of firing 30 rounds before needing reloading. A fourth gun was said to have been found in his mother’s car. In all, more than 100 shell casings were found.

Meanwhile, the New York Times has given over the top of its website to recording the toll.

10.17 (05.17) John Bingham reports that a six-year-old British boy, Dylan Hockley, is among the victims.

Dylan Hockley, from Hampshire, moved with his parents and older brother to Newtown, Connecticut, two years ago.

His mother, Nicole, a former marketing consultant, recently described the area as “a wonderful place to live” with “incredible” neighbours and “amazing” schools”.